


Performance

by fandomnumbergenerator



Category: Hellblazer, Hellblazer & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, M/M, Sex Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 18:41:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4756916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomnumbergenerator/pseuds/fandomnumbergenerator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John psyching himself up to see Stanley again. Set during "A Fresh Coat of Red Paint"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Performance

Sex was a good cover for a lot of things. Paid sex even more so. Right now, he needed a plausible reason to be in Turro’s hotel. And, anyway, the noir myths had their own power, particularly here in Los Angeles. And he needed all the help he could get.

Turro, sure as shit, wasn't going to help him. Turro was an asshole, but that was OK. John was an asshole too. He had been angry for so long, everything else had been burned away.

But the girl was perfect. It had been a long time since he’d had so much fun with someone. Everything she said was a gun moll zinger, and nothing could phase her. Maybe that’s why, when she asked for a name, he started to say Kitt before catching himself, and making it Kitty instead. He didn’t need a running partner, just a cover story and a quick fuck.

But now that he was talking to her, he realized what he had really needed was a pep talk.

He was having second thoughts. He wasn’t sure he could do this. He’d never really been good at the long con; he didn’t have that kind of patience. Maybe he should save all the theatrics and just compel Stanley to shoot himself. Leave this monstrous wasteland of a country and never come back.

But when Kitty talked about how sex work was all about the performance, it was exactly what he needed to hear. Maybe a man pushing 50 could still pull this off. Maybe the man who 25 years earlier had told him, “we have similar interests,” would still be interested now. Maybe he really could play Stanley’s obsession back against him.

He wanted to commiserate with Kitty. Not to tell he what he was planning, but to tell her about his own time in the trenches. But she would probably think he was angling for an industry discount. And, anyway, he didn’t want to watch her try to back-calculate what he had looked like when he was young and pretty.

The first time had been an accident, or maybe just a misunderstanding. Back then, he’d had an unfortunate thing for asshole older men, and this guy had been no exception. So when he offered him cab fare home, John had done a quick calculation and quintupled the number. And the guy’s willingness to pay had put the whole episode in a different light. 

When he heard the story, Gaz thought it was punk as fuck, and had wanted to start covering 53rd & 3rd, but John had nixed that real quick. But, still, it had become, in times of need, just one more kind of hustle, before he perfected his cleromancy and the more lucrative forms of hypnotism.

So, yeah, he could make it a performance. It didn’t sound like Stanley was looking for tender cuddles anyway. He just hoped that once he started beating Stanley, he would be able to stop.


End file.
